Katherine Mayo was born in Ridgway, Pennsylvania, but she was educated
at private schools in Boston and Cambridge, and her home has long been
in New York City.
She is a contributor to our best periodicals, _The Atlantic Monthly_,
_Scribner's_, _The North American_, _The Outlook_, and _The Saturday
Evening Post_. Her stories are almost all founded on facts. The story
"John G." in this collection of short stories is selected from _The
Standard Bearers_, which is a group of true narratives concerning the
Pennsylvania State Police. These tales are told by Miss Mayo in a
finely distinctive way which makes vivid the gallant deeds of these
brave men.
Miss Mayo's interest in the history and deeds of the Pennsylvania State
Police was aroused by her personal experience of the helplessness of
country districts in New York state to prevent or punish crime. Miss
Mayo had heard that Pennsylvania years ago had acknowledged its duty to
protect all its people, and to that end had established a rural patrol
known as the State Police. Finding little in print concerning this
force, she went to Pennsylvania to study the facts first hand.
The results of her investigations she published early in 1917 in her
book, _Justice to All_, with an introduction by ex-President Roosevelt,
in which he declares the volume to be so valuable that it should be in
every public library and every school-library in the land.
In _The Standard Bearers_, she tells of some of the special feats of
early members of that now famous force. No detective stories, no tales
of the Wild West can exceed in thrilling human interest these true
narratives of events that have happened in our own time and in our own
country.
Miss Mayo during the world war has done active work over seas in the
"Y." True stories of her experiences with the doughboys have appeared
in _The North American_, and in _The Outlook_.
John G.
68, 1. Barrack-Room Ballads. Poems by Rudyard Kipling with the
atmosphere of the far East.
69, 1. Pennsylvania State Police. See sketch of Katherine Mayo.
2. I. W. W. Industrial Workers of the World, a revolutionary labor
organization. The members have given much trouble by their extreme
views, such as eternal war against their employers. They believe that
they should organize as a class and take possession of the earth,
abolishing the wage system.
70, 1. Blue ribbon. A sign of distinction; a blue ribbon worn by a
horse at a horse show denotes that he has won the first prize.
2. Atlantis. A mythical island of vast extent mentioned by Plato and
other ancient writers and placed by them in the distant unknown West.
72, 1. Two by twelves. A plank two inches thick by twelve inches wide.
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